My stepfather, Thomas Duke, who has died suddenly aged 48, was one of the leading biological physicists of his generation. In 2007 he was appointed professor of physics at University College London and deputy director for life sciences at the newly established London Centre for Nanotechnology.

In 2010 he received the Institute of Physics Franklin medal and prize for his work on the organising principles of cells, the workings of the inner ear and molecular sorting devices. In April this year, he published a paper in Nature throwing light on cell behaviour in the early stages of cancer.

Tom was born in Claygate, Surrey. Having completed his A-levels a year early on a bursary at King's College school, Wimbledon, he went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, obtaining a first in natural sciences in 1984, followed by a PhD in polymer physics under Sir Sam Edwards. After spells at the ESPCI in Paris and at Princeton, he returned to Cambridge in 1995, as a Royal Society university research fellow, as lecturer then reader at the Cavendish Laboratory, and as a fellow of Trinity College.

He somehow also found the time to be a cordon bleu chef, music aficionado, artist, photographer, plumber-cum-electrician and adventurer. When I moved to Paris after graduating, he decided to drive my 50cc Vespa over 300 miles from Cambridge to deliver it to my doorstep. About 20 miles outside Paris, he got a puncture in the middle of nowhere. At this point, most sensible people would have phoned the AA. But Tom managed to fix the puncture with a twig and eventually made it to Paris, victorious.

He had immense taste and brought a natural aesthetic quality to anything he did. There was a certain methodicalness and consistency in his ways, both in life and at work. He never cut corners, a quality that earned him the respect of his colleagues and peers. Even the bacon and eggs he made on my visits home (he liked to indulge my nostalgia for classic British food) would take on a distinguished air, worthy of a Michelin-starred restaurant. He found pleasure in the simplest of things.

Despite the complexity of his work and the level of intellect it demanded, he had a mischievous side, which I loved the most and will remember always.

Tom is survived by my mother, Akila, myself, his father, John, and stepmother, Janet, and his three brothers, James, Guy and Matthew.